How adolescents feel about social media, and what reserach says about its potential effects on mental health
Social media has become central to the lives of many adolescents. Debates about whether it is good or bad for young people have intensified in recent years. In response to growing concerns about its effects, Australia implemented a world-first ban on December 10 2025, prohibiting children under 16 from accessing major social media platforms. Companies that fail to enforce the restriction can face fines of up to A$49.5 million.
Amid these debates, it helps to understand what adolescents themselves think and feel about how much time they spend online. To answer that question, researchers at Pew Research Center surveyed U.S. adolescents ages 13–17 about their social media habits and how those habits affect their daily lives.
Nearly 50% of teens say they spend too much time on social media. But this alone does not tell the whole story. To understand how social media may affect adolescents’ lives, we also need to look at how usage relates to factors like sleep, relationships, and mental well-being.
When asked about social media's effect on people their age, teens are more negative than positive. However, this significantly differs from their views of their own experience.
Red bars show perceptions of social media's effect on teens in general. Blue bars show how teens feel about its effect on themselves personally.
Notice that teens are more likely to say social media has a mostly negative effect on other teens, but a neutral or positive effect on themselves. This pattern reflects a common bias: people often assume that others are more vulnerable to negative influences than they are.
Click any bar to see which life areas are most affected.
Social media touches nearly every dimension of adolescent life. This chart shows how teens rate social media's impact (from helped a lot to hurt a lot) on areas like mental health, friendships, and academics.
Click a section in the top chart to highlight the corresponding positive or negative segments below.
Social media has been repeatedly associated with a range of negative outcomes, several of which researchers examined in this survey.
The most common negative experiences relate to social pressure: feeling left out, pressure to post, and dealing with online drama.
Bars are sorted from most to least common total negative experience.
The darker red segments show teens who felt these effects "a lot", respresenting a small but meaningful proportion for several categories. This response indicates these issues are not a minor inconvenience but a significant stressor.
Social media is also a genuine source of connection, creative expression, and support for many adolescents. It can help them stay connected with friends, share their identities, and build communities online.
Feeling more connected to friends' lives and finding opportunity for creative expression tops the list of positive experiences. For many teens, social media expands their social world in meaningful ways.
In this survey, adolescents were generally more likely to report positive experiences than negative ones. While many do encounter pressures and frustrations online, larger shares say social media helps them feel more connected to friends, express themselves creatively, and stay engaged with the world around them.
Aggregate data tells us about trends, but every dot below represents a real student. Each circle's size reflects daily social media usage hours. Color indicates gender. Position on the x-axis shows their mental health score (1–10, higher is better).
Click any dot to see that student's profile.
Click a dot to explore a student's profile
The data paints a nuanced picture. Social media is woven into the fabric of teen life, and it shapes that life in both meaningful and troubling ways. Teens themselves are aware of this tension: they use it, they question it, and many wish they used it less.
While negative effects such as social pressure and exposure to drama are common, the survey also highlights that many teens report positive outcomes. Connection with friends, opportunities for creative expression, and access to supportive communities are frequently cited as meaningful benefits. For most teens, the positive effects often outweigh the negatives, though the balance varies across individuals and contexts.
Many questions remain unanswered, and further research is needed to better understand how social media shapes adolescent well-being over time. As social media and technology continue to evolve, it is increasingly important to examine the complex relationship between online experiences and teens’ mental, social, and emotional development.
Data sources:
Social Media Addiction vs Relationships (Kaggle)
and
Pew Research Center – Teens, Social Media, and Mental Health (2025)
.
Story inspired by Pew Research reporting.
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